EXTRACT FROM SOLDIER'S DIARY.

Dozerdust, Volume 1, Issue 14, 13 September 1943, Page 6

EXTRACT FROM SOLDIER'S DIARY.

# ” the nicklo works proved well worth the long walk round the hoy. the treatment of the crude ore is done by a small proportion of modern machinery, augmented by a largo number of native labourers the ora in lifted out of the boats which bring it down th® coast, by big evanou and is dumped into hop’urn from where it is token to the works by an over-head rope bucket system, tho buckets deposit the ore into heaps under lorge tin roofs where it is loaded into hand trucks by nstiveo and taken to the smelter as required® * * * tho first process the oro goon thnough in the crusher, in fact, it le crushed two or three times, and is conveyed from one crusher to another by h ondloco belts® following the crushing it is mixed with a certs’n amount cf coke and passed over jots of flame, which appears to clinker the whole mass* it is then convoyed by hand truck in'this rad hot condition to the main furnaces, what happens here i wouldn’t be very certain, but i did see the rufuso now in a molten ata-'o being run off above from whore the nickel is located® * * * this being the first time i had soon a molten maos, i^ IRO with difficulty i loft It? it was a groat sight and looked like running flame, spreading itself in all directions, until caught in tho trough whore it was subjected to a jut of water In which it immediately crystalisod / into a fine granulated substance like crushed coke <» the nickel itself -is only run off onoe a day, end unfortunately we •did not strike the right time. * * * wo' loft the nicklo werkb thumbing a ridu back to town with an nmoi'isan officer just in time to buy a good ap L '.v of boor at the beor garden, now this place iu only a high Iniosnd dn proa where one can buy beer-— two cans which must be “consumed therein*o as there wore three of us ,wo got a good supply by h ■ one of us witching our first iatuewhilo the others doubled back for more, this of• course meant waiting in tho eternal queue. . nothing is procured without waiting in a queue.in tho army* well, wo consumed our beer, fouling a lot bettor and more eager to tc?°placosj ■ but the way tho others wore behaving, i could sue someone would bo soon getting into trouble, so i managed after much persuasion to coax them back to camp for tea, after which they soon calmed down and noon wont to bod. * * * it was the best day i hove had. noumoa, itself, • • is disappointing® the best plaoo in the town is the amerioan rod. cross which provides a writing room, big reading room, a games room and a buffet ’'hero one con buy most’things. * * * i tried to find something nt a reasonable price .in the'civilian shops to. send homo the wif-*nnd kiddies., but it was a hopeless task, tho prices were rldici’lop.u'Ly highs, ? ■ '• ...